Shoe-rack stabilizer



G. E. TURNER.

SHOE RACK STABILIZER.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 14. 1921.

1 ,407, 1 8 1 Patented Feb. 21, 1922.

H w i g w w W A Horny GnR Lnn. TURNER, or LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS.

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Specification of Letters Yatent. Patented Feb, 21, 1922.

Application filed September 1a, 1921; Serial No. 500,605.

Back Stabilizers, of which the following is such a full, clear, and exact description as will enable others versed in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to shoe racks and more particularly to what I am pleased to term shoe rack stabilizers.

It will be understood by those familiar with the manufacture of shges during the time they are carried or left upon shoe racks, that when the racks are pushed and wheeled about the factory, the resulting straining, jolting motion, and weight of the shoes and lasts, causes a spreading of the carrying rounds of the rack sothat the shoes frequently fall through the rounds to the floor, often thereby becoming materially damaged.

The purposes of my invention are:

1. To avoid the spreading of the rounds of shoe racks so that shoes placed thereon rest without danger of slipping.

2. To eliminate much of the damage incidental to the manufacture of shoes during their travel through the factory from one operation to the other.

3. To provide an improved means for straightening and keeping straight the rounds of shoe racks.

4. To provide an improved means of distributing to the outer rounds of a shoe rack the weight of shoes placed upon the rack.

5. To provide improved means of gripping and strengthening all the rounds of a shoe rack, which gripping and strengthening automatically increases in proportion to weight placed thereon.

6. To provide-an improved means of stiffening and stabilizing ordinary'shoe racks, thereby increasing the life and usefulness of the same. 7 I

-7. To eliminate the possibility of freshly colored heels slipping throughthe spreading rounds of an ordinary shoe rack, and contacting with the light quarter or lining of shoes resting thereunder,

I accomplish the purposesof'my invention by means of my improved shoe rack stabil-v izer, so formed preferably from a substan tial metal rod as to span and tie together the parallel rounds of a shoe rack. j

, Referring to the accompanying drawings, 7

Figure 1, is a side view of my stabilizer.

Figure 2, shows my stabilizer as it is fitted upon and at the center of the rounds of a shoe rack, showing its ends'bent about and under the outer rounds.

Similar marks of reference refer to similar parts throughout the drawings.

Referring again to Figure 1, A and A show the end hooks of my' device which en-' gage the'outer rounds A and A of the shoe rack upon which the stabilizer is used. B, C, D, and E, show the rings which it will be noticed are shaped to form an arc of approximately 240 that theymay grip and support the center rounds B, C, D, and E of the shoe-rack.

To those familiar with the art to which my I invention appertainsit will be seen that as the weight of the shoes falls upon the rounds B, C, D and E, the said weight is distributed by my stabilizer directly to the outer rounds A and A and at thesame time the rounds are. all securely held in their normal relative positions irrespective at which point thereon shoes are placed.

The openings of the rings B, being at the top, weight placed upon the rounds, secured by my stabilizer, operates to automatically tighten the grip of the rings upon the rounds, adding rigidity and carry- O, D, and E,

ing strength both to the rounds and tothe' rack as a whole.

It is obvious that the device described eliminates much of the racking Wear and tear shoe racks have in times past been subjected to, lengthens materially their term of usefulness and at the same time insures a greater degree of safety to shoes carried thereon in their passage through the factory. It is ordinarily necessary to use but one stabilizer for eachtier of rounds on a shoe rack, the same being placed at a point on the rounds equally distanced from their ends.

To sustain extreme weights, however, two

or more stabilizers may be used at varying intervals.

Having thus described my invention I 7 claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States ofAmerica:

1. A device of the type described having its ends shaped to hook on to and about the outer rounds of a shoe rack and having intermediate'its ends means of fitting about and gripping the inner rounds of said rack,

all acting-as a tie in supporting and hold-' ing the said rounds in their normal relative position in use, all substantially as described and for the reasons specified.

2. A device of the type described having a series of rings so as to respectively encircle the parallel rounds of a shoe rack about which they fit and increasingly grip in proportion to the Weight placed on said rounds, all substantially as described and for the reasons specified.

3. A device of the type described having its ends shaped to hook onto and about the outer rounds of a shoe rack and having intermediate its ends a series of rings open at the top as to respectively encircle the inner parallel rounds of a shoe rack about which they fit and increasingly grip in proportion to the Weight placed on said rounds, all substantially as described and for the reasons specified. V

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in the presence of tWo Witnesses.

GERALD E. TURNER. Witnesses DOROTHY F. BIsHOP, CHARLES W. Lovn'rr; 

